warning signs of a bad starter?

[jastutte]

i have a 96 discovery with 156xxx miles. recently she has been turning over slowly, but always starting in under five seconds. had the battery tested and it came up with ok voltage but the meter said bad battery and gave no reason. stupid meter. the starting system and alternator tested out fine. this was all done by an employee of a local autoparts store. bought a battery from a friend at cost and threw it on. Now the starter sounds stronger but still kind of stutters for one or two seconds.

so, what are the signs of a starter on it's way out? should i be looking at this or chasing something else? i plan on checking the connections at the starter and the ground straps.

i'd like to take the rover out to the country on sunday, but if the starter is going then i don't want to get stuck.

thanks,

jeremiah in stl

 

[joey]

Could be a bad starter, you can pull it and have it tested, but it could also just be a bad ground or bad wiring to the starter.

 

[Maddie]

My 95's starter went out with about 120,000 on it. About the same mo. I was amazed after I pulled the starter apart with a guy that rebuilds starters that almost all the parts were all laying in the bottom of the starter housing oil soaked and broken. That little starter acted up for a month before it finally gave it up. With that many miles on it don't you think you owe it a new starter? Or at least rebuild it like I did.

 

[Disco Mike]

So, you said the battery came back OK. If the cables were clean and tight, what was the battery voltage at idle and at 2000 RPM's? At 2000 RPM's it should be between 13.6 and 14.4 volts, what was yours?

 

[jastutte]

at idle the meter read right around 13.6. we didn't check at 2000 rpms. i haven't had any other electrical issues. i'll try to take a look at the connections at the starter this weekend.

 

[Disco Mike]

If you are above 13.6 then you are probably dealing with a soon to die starter.